I just put up a story on Military.com about a new Army program dubbed the Rapid Adaptive Zoom for Assault Rifles, or RAZAR scope. It was developed by a former Special Forces officer so shooters can zoom in and out on short and long-range targets far faster than they can with traditional rifle-scope technology.
The RAZAR uses what's known as adaptive-zoom technology.
Unlike traditional optical zoom, "adaptive zoom changes the focal lengths of two or more lenses by varying the curvature of the lenses' surfaces to provide optical zoom without changing their overall positions relative to one another. This allows the user to view either a wide-angle image or zoom in on an area of interest with a compact, low-power system.""The impetus behind the idea of push-button zoom is you can acquire what you're interested in at low magnification and – without getting lost – zoom in for more clarity," said RAZAR developer Brett Bagwell, now an optical engineer with Sandia National Laboratories.
Time will tell if this is truly revolutionary, but it sure sounds promising. Smartphone users can click here to view the video below.
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